I’ve been Honestly Scrapped
Deborah of Green Theater gave me this Honest Scrap award by tagging me in her acceptance speech post yesterday.
I’m stunned because I’ve never received one of these awards before.
And as ever in life, there is no such thing as a free lunch or award, and the rules of receiving the award are as follows:
A . You must brag about the award.
This is difficult, for me, you know. I’m English, and we get very embarrassed by success. I can be suitably bashful, and mutter, “I am not worthy”,but..brag? Will this count? It will have to do…
B. You must link back to the person who gave the award you.
That’s easier to do…here is Deborah in all her Green Theatre Glory
C. You must share 10 honest things about yourself…a slightly scary prospect but still, rules are rules…..
D. You must give the award to 7 more bloggers who inspire you. Only seven? This will be hard indeed…….
So, to the “honesty” part of the deal…..
1. I am left-handed. This makes life difficult sometimes especially when using old-fashioned potato peelers. God bless the founders of the Left Handed Shop and Ned Flanders.
2. I buy too many books. Old or new….
My house is filled to the brim with them. I’m hoping my Christmas present of a Kindle from my husband will relieve the pressure on the joists in the bedrooms…..
3. I broke my neck in a road accident ( not my fault) years ago. This has affected my life considerably in a very damaging, physical way, though you could never tell from the way I walk( in fact the mere fact I can walk amazes me every day). I try to combat the pain and the troubles associated with it every day and rise above it. And most importantly of all, to stop moaning too much about it. If you catch me moaning on you are hereby authorised to stop me.
4. As a result of 3 above I can’t wear heels ( I know!!!! The Horror!!!!!) So, my permanent shopping quest is to find the snazziest, sharpest and prettiest flats to wear . My shoes need to be flat but they do not need to be boring.Bless you French Sole and Pretty Ballerinas both and please don’t ever go out of business.
5. Like Deborah, I truly hate my name. I wanted to be an Eleanor…or a Victoria..or an Elizabeth ( family names all). Anything but a Julie.
6. I am obsessed with my blog stats, even though I have one visitor whom I might rightly class as a stalker. He or more probably she clearly doesn’t seem to know that I can see his/her every move, every click and when he/she comes and goes whatever the time of day or night etc. .Still he/she comes back, day after day, hour after hour. I’ve shared this information with a few other fellow blogggers (for this person has “out-clicked to their sites from mine on a too regular basis not to be noticeably odd)and they are watching this person like hawks too…..Spooky.
7. I hate watermelon.
8. I was once in a lift with Eric Idle of Monty Python fame. To my eternal shame and to the chagrin of the French Scholar who is a big Python fan, I didn’t summon up the courage to speak to him…….
9. Apart from gardening my other great passion is Jane Austen and her world. I used torture you here with my references to her life and times too much and now do it elsewhere ;-)
10. I am distantly related to Stan Laurel. Yes, really.
Now to the really fun part, listing seven bloggers who inspire me. Only seven? Oh, OK then…….this list is not exhaustive ;-)
1) A Non-gardening blogger, I hope that is allowed…..Karen of BookishNYC. Karen is my great friend inside and outside of blogs. We bonded over a box of Charbonnel et Walker chocolates years ago and as two lawyers can commiserate with each other on the slings, arrows and outrageous fortune of the female lawyerly life. Her book blog is fun and gives precious insights into her life in NYC. I adore it and go there to laugh and get inspired by new books and pithy quotes. She also inspired me to begin blogging and for that I am eternally grateful. You may view that fact differently,of course…..
2) Alice Anastasia of Bay Area Tendrils who opens my eyes to the beauty of new installation style gardens. I love her blog, her style and her ;-)
3. Catherine of A Gardener in Progress. The first gardening blogger with whom I made contact, Catherine is grace in action. I adore reading her blog daily( for she posts with far more regularity than I ever do) and I love to see her blooms, her family , pets and the pond(I covet that pond…)
4. Flora (Carol) of Flower Hill Farm. Her blog is a gentle exploration of the beautiful landscape around her. Reading it is like taking a walk with Flora every time she posts and she is very congenial company.
5. The Dirt Princess of The Trials and Tribulations of a Southern Gardener. Mother to Bilbo , the gnome who came here and eloped with Jane Austen only to desert her and eventually surface again on the Carolina shores with my adored friend Anna of FlowerGardenGirl. Such a bubbly, fun blog by a bubbly, fun lady. I love both it and her.
6. Celia of Purple Podded Peas. The famous Fen Tigress, gardener and artist supreme from Suffolk, who makes me laugh with her tales of the Spice Girls( the chickens)and her Studio Assistants(the cats). I love her artwork and also love to hear her describe the process of creating it. And her garden is a thing of beauty.
7. Liz of Gwirrel’s Garden. Liz is a fabulous girl , who has the most stylish blog I know. I simply adore her photographic style and can look at her wonderful photographs for eons. When I’m rich I will commission her ;-)
So that’s it. Its been great fun and I’d like to thank Deborah once again for including me in this process. I hope you’ve found it fun too.
Remember, Remember the 7th November?
Shurely shome mistake?
Time constraints meant that most people- in our area at least- celebrated Guy Fawkes’s disastrous terrorist attempt on King James and the old Houses of Parliament last night and not on the 5th.
A good and raucous time was had by all as sparklers were flourished…
Everyone trying to spell their name in the flaming taper
And nearly succeeding ….
Rockets, Catherine Wheels and Roman Candles were accompanied by the traditional “Ooos” and “Ahs” from the assembled crowd…
The French Scholar taking his role as Chief Pyrotechnic Officer very seriously…
As the rest of us enjoying the show on a chilly but thankfully dry November evening, sipping Roasted Butter Nut Squash soup, hot dogs with onions and all the trimmings, jacket potatoes, and home- made chocolate brownies and crisp apple puffs.
As usual it is all over too quickly. I can’t wait till next year …..an ancient lesson of how to turn a near adversity into a triumph.
Flower Brick Friday Number 18:Autumn is Upon Us
Foggy mornings, frosty nights and the prospect of a bonfire and fireworks on Saturday-Gunpowder Treasons and Plot not being forgot, (Nevah!!!) but difficult to execute with ease on a school night-it really is autumnal at the moment
And this week’s Isis Ceramics flower brick represents this. The flower brick is obviously inspired by 17th century Chinese porcelain designs
With a very simple design of flowers
and birds….
This kind of porcelain, exported into Europe from the east, inspired the makers of English and Dutch tin glazed pottery so the design is apt: they couldn’t replicate the body of the pots, which were expensive and made of the secret material- porcelain-but they could copy the patterns on a relatively cheap to produce medium. And that is how ”delftware” came into being. The fashion for blue and white porcelain( and its imitations) was brought from Holland to England when William and Mary of Orange came to live here after ascending to their join thrones in 1689. And of course this is the style in which the state rooms at Chatsworth have now been restored.
If I put a 17th century tulipiere on my Christmas List do you think Father Christmas would bring one? I’ve been a very good girl and I’m sure I am not on the naughty list….No? You are probably correct……let’s get back to our flowers….
The pink (pink!!! not blue, dash it!!!) hydrangea is still holding onto its flower heads which have now taken on a Chinese paper texture
The heads of three blooms make the base of this week’s arrangement
In addition, to provide some height, Ive used some greenery-yallery flowers: Nicotiana Langsdorfii.
These are the remnants of the ones that grew in pots on my terrace this summer. I adore these beautiful green tubular flowers.
Ive also used some evergreen twigs and flowers from Vibrunum tinus-that stalwart of the winter garden.
And some snips from another viburnum with similar but far more fragrant flowers:
Vibrunum bodnantense,named after the magnificent Bodnant Gardens in Wales.
This shrub will now flower till the spring ,and just a few sprigs of its flowers will scent a whole room with a sweet honey smell for days.
As a filer I’ve used some of the feathery springs of my variegated spiera, which is almost fully evergreen with me.
And that’s it- an autumnal Chinese inspired brick, for a week when Chinese fireworks will fill the air.
And while I can’t promise to emulate the magnificent display the Duke of Richmond managed on the Thames in London in the late 18th century…
Im going to try and take some pictures of our celebration tomorrow ( including an 85 shot Roman Candle) to share with you: fiddling with my camera I’ve noticed a “fireworks”setting and I cant wait to try it out ‘;-)
Time for the gardeners here to heave a sigh of relief…..
and for me to thank them for their indulgence.
I have added another string to my virtual bow and have posted my first post on Austen Only, where I hope to blog about once a week or so on a Jane Austen social history inspired topic.
Thus leaving this place relatively free of too much non-gardening Austen posts ;-)
I do hope you will go over there and join me in a detailed view of her world ;-)
Beautiful Burghley
Yesterday I accompanied my son as he represented his school at an educational fair held at Burghley House.
The weather was cruel- torrential rain,gales…not ideal. For the children- one troupe from a school bravely performing dance routines in the stables quadrangle, poor souls, some from my son’s school fencing in the dark and damp-it was just unfair that our Indian Summer had come to such an abrupt end.. But in spite of it all a good day was had and the school deemed it successful.
I confess I retired to the wonderful Orangery restaurant and drank copious amounts of hot chocolate…
It wasn’t a day for photographs.But today was . So after delivering my son to school I went a little further along the road to Burghley House for walk in the Capability Brown designed park , to be able to share some if its beauties with you.
Burghley House was built for Queen Elizabeth I’s the first and most loyal and clever minister, Lord Cecil. And it has been owned by his descendants ever since. It is an Elizabethan house but you can see the classical influence of Inigo Jones beginning to make itself felt. Look at the chimney stacks-they are classical columns standing proudly amidst the jumble of banqueting houses and curlicues on the roof.
Burghley does have an association with Jane Austen: it was used for the location of Rosings in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice directed by Joe Wright. It was of course completely wrong : Rosings is described as a modern built house, in one of Jane Austen’s layering techniques-adding inference upon inference that the “noble” house of De Bourgh was not that really long-established or noble despite what Lady Catherine would have you believe…
Whatever you think of it Burghley cannot be described as modern at the time Pride and Prejudice was written ( it was nearly 200 years old by then).
But the filming took place mostly on location around this part of the world, and Stamford the beautiful stone town which is on the edge of the Burghley estate was used for Meryton.
It made logistical sense to use the local “big” house for Rosings. Here are some pictures I took during filming and a few days before- we were all invited to come and look at the preparations the film crew had made: they were stunning.
My family and I auditioned for parts as extras: we didnt get them. We were sad. But then I met the writer of the film Deobrah Moggarch who commiserated with me, telling me that reason I was not picked as because I was “nice looking” (bless her!)
She explained that the director wanted the Meryton scenes to have a distinctly Hogarthian feel to them and so only wanted faces that reflected this….So in fact I was mightily relived not be classed as having an Hogathian face. Burghley has been used in countless films( go here to see some details of them)
What is lovely about Burghley are the trees: the parkland is stunning and open all year round for walkers , people with dogs and wanderers with cameras like me.
You can doge the sheep, the deer
and look at the trees, the cricket pavilion,
and the remnants of Loudon and Wise’s avenues of trees which are being renovated ( Hurrah and Huzzah!)
The mistletoe crowns on some of the trees are magical. They add such interest to the silhouettes.
The Ha-ha is sinuous , almost like a modern art installation, and has recently been beautifully (and expensively renovated)
The stone work is a piece of poetry- just look:
Just the sort of thing to frighten Maria in Mansfield Park..and rightly so, the nasty little girl.
Of course the Ha-ha keeps livestock out,as Maria knew so well, but it has no effect on Canadian geese…
The garden and house closed on Saturday for the season. But I will come back next year for the Garden Of Surprises –a modern interpretation of the allegorical Elizabethan garden built by the Tradescants( master gardeners to the Cecils and to the early Stuarts) which is now getting into its stride being 3 years old. This is it-all walled off…with pepper pot pavilions….tempting isn’t it?
Lets all come back together in the spring and have another look around….shall we?
Flower Brick Friday Number 17 Flowers in the guise of Fruit?
Why? Because the container I have used this week,whist still made by Isis Ceramics, is not a flower brick but a colander,and was this form of ceramic was probably used to support pyramids of freshly washed fruit like strawberries, peaches and grapes on a late 18th /early 19th table than flowers. Just like the refreshments served at Pemberley in Chapter 54 of Pride and Prejudice:
The next variation which their visit afforded was produced by the entrance of servants with cold meat, cake, and a variety of all the finest fruits in season; but this did not take place till after many a significant look and smile from Mrs. Annesley to Miss Darcy had been given, to remind her of her post. There was now employment for the whole party — for though they could not all talk, they could all eat; and the beautiful pyramids of grapes, nectarines, and peaches soon collected them round the table.
But It does suit flowers, I think you will agree. Let’s look at the colander in some detail as I’ve not used it here before.
Looking down on it from above you can see that its body is pierced with holes,which were thought to allow the water from the fruit to drip down saving the surface of any wonderfully polished table or side board. Some debate does rage as to exactly what purpose these were used, but drainer is still my preferred usage.
This one has been ornamented with classical urns-I think it is wonderful to decorate a part of the item that would only be revealed as the fruit was eaten…
The sides are decorated with a continuous landscape….
Chapels and swans…..
Island temples….
Garden pavilions and peacocks
Gilpin- esque cattle and towers… And so to the flowers. This week I think I might have used the very very last of the roses…Here is Jayen Austin: only one bloom and some buds were left on the bush…
I do think the centre of the flower looks like a glorious sunset.
The Hybrid Musk rose Cornelia has thrown up a few late blooms: such strong scent from these vividly coloured blossoms.
And another Hybrid Musk, Felicia, still has one of two small examples to pick…..
And here are the last blooms of Abraham Darby by David Austin.This rose has been spectacular this year
in both blooms and fragrance,and fully deserves a good feed and a rest.
The solanum album is still blooming and growing out of bounds.
It is a very good filler in these type of arrangements…..
So pretty and delicate: I do hope it survives the winter…..
A few strands of Jasmine affine were still blooming. They are great for this type of low bowl as they lend an elegant edge to it.
And finally the structure- you need something to hold everything else in position in these types of bowls,was provided by a shrub and I cannot remember its name ( how shaming)
it works beautifully however……
And so that is it: this weeks masquerade of a Flower Brick Friday …..
I do hope you all have a good weekend,and take every opportunity to enjoy yourselves ;-)
Travellers Tales Number 3: Levens Hall( long!)
Four posts in four days? Goodness,what is happening?LOL To be perfectly and brutally frank, I consider I ought to finish posting about the gardens I visited in the summer before Christmas is upon us at least, so today’s post is about the wonderful gardens at Levens Hall in Cumbria, and that means I have only one more post to bring to you in the series.
My visit to Levens Hall was rather special for me.I had wanted to visit this garden for over 30 years.But for some reason or other whenever Id been in the Lake District, Levens Hall always slipped from my fingers, just out of reach,the Holy Grail of gardens. I finally confided my hopes of visiting to The French Scholar and so we made a real effort to get to the house this time.
And the reason Deborah of Green Theatre will be interested in this post will become rather obvious later on ..I promise.
Levens Hall,as you can clearly see from the picture above, is ancient,and sits on the flattish estuary plain that leads to Morecambe Bay. I wasn’t really interested in the contents of the house and had a sudden downpour not occurred we would have simply looked at the gardens.That would have been a mistake..One of the chatelaines of the house was the favourite niece of the first Duke of Wellington…my goodenss he was obviously VERY fond of her for gave her a lot of very lovely and personal presents and many relics of the Napoleonic wars., including his campain bed( the one he slept in the night before Waterloo). The French Scholar was happy and enthralled.
I thought the house had the most magical charm; some house do have this dont they? The rooms were not so large that they were forbidding.I could have stayed there for days and would have been very happy. The staff were also impeccably welcoming , informative and kind. We were given a most wonderful send off-as if we had just spent a week at a house party there. I adored it.
The house was supposed to have been won on the turn of the ace of hearts in a game of cards: all around the outside of the house the lead work is emblazoned with hearts. It really is like something from a Regency Romance story ;-)
But eventually the rain cleared and we were allowed into the gardens(the staff in the house kept dissuading us for going out in all that terrible rain!)…we were not disappointed. The gardens were designed and executed by Guilliame Beaumont in the 17th century and their form in the main has been kept up till the present day. No one swept the formality away under the influence of teh 18th century landscape movement…thank godness.no, Fanny Price from Mansfield Park would have adored this place. No Humprey Repton employed here to sweep away the work of centuries ;-)
There is topiary and formal gardens galore, all divided into “rooms”. Just my idea of heaven…Come and have a look with me,and from now on there will be more photographs than words( lots of them,I promise!)
The most famous part of the garden is the topiary garden to the south of the house. Box enclosures are mass planted with annuals, surrounded by ancient topiary structures…..
A guided to the annual plantings is helpfully provided…note the rain drops ;-)
Leaving the topiary gardens we come to long borders and stunning vistas….
An orchard, with imaginatively mown grass….
The Croquet Lawn, bigger than most gardens in modern homes……
And a willow maze……
..The Living Labyrinth….
Which my son adored……
While my Dear Daughter bemoaned the water damage done to her fashionable ballet flats…..
In a prettyish little wilderness there were some wonderful classical structures….made from local stone and slate
And seriously tall beech hedges……
Leading to avenues of immaculately pleached limes( this bit is for you Deborah)
Which in turn led to ponds and fountains…..
And gave out to lovely deep vistas
And marvellous herbaceous borders……
Filled with clematis……
And day lilies…….
And hot dahlias….
And back to the magical urn……
And a relict of World War II- a defensive “pill box” no longer awaiting the invasion ….
And a mystery- does anyone know what this plant is?
I love its slightly sinister look. If anyone can give me a name Id be obliged ;-)
And so to the Buttery for afternoon tea…..
Our day at Levens was just magical and Im glad I was eventually able to share it with you ;-)
Steventon House for Sale
Since I began this blog in April, I’ve been asked by many of you to post here in the same manner as I did for nearly six years at the Life and Times Board at the Republic of Pemerley. I can’t promise to do it with the same regularity as I did there, but I promise I will try ,at least once a month, to post about a Jane Austen topic, not necessarily garden related. Those of you not primarily interested in Jane Austen will indulge those of us who are, I’m sure: you are too kind not to ;-) I know a lot of you enjoyed the old posts as much as I enjoyed writing them, so here goes ;-)
Today’s post is really bit of fluff, some trivia…but I think it might interest you ;-)
It has come to my attention that Steventon House is currently for sale.
This house has some relevance to those of us interested in Jane Austen because it was built to replace her birthplace, the old Steventon Rectory where she was born and where the Austens raised their large brood of interesting children and schooled many a fine young gentlemen in preparedness for life at public school. I’ve long held the impression that it was a bustling, busy and happy household.
Jane’s father, The Reverend George Austen, was of course rector of Steventon. This seemingly happy house, the one Jane Austen so dreaded leaving for Bath in 1800, was eventually demolished by Edward Austen Knight, her rich brother in 1824.
He owned the Steventon estate in Hampshire, which included the benefice , the church of St Nicholas-see above- and the Rectory , for he had inherited it along with the Hampshire estate of Chawton and the Kent Godmersham estate from his “adoptive “cousins the most excellent Thomas Knight II and his wife. St Nicolas’s is a fascinating church, though somewhat altered since Jane Austen knew it. It lies a short walk along the lane from the site of the old rectory and Jane’s eldest brother James, who was also rector of Steventon following in his fathers footsteps, is buried in the churchyard there:
The field where Jane Austen’s home once stood is still empty save for a sad relict: the water pump that supplied the household. Steventon House has therefore little direct association to Jane save for the fact that Edward Knight built it as a replacement for her old beloved home , and that the first incumbent was her nephew and Edward’s son, the Reverend William Knight.
This house remained as the rectory for the village till 1930,when the parishes of North Waltham and Steventon were amalgamated. The benefice was brought by the second Duke of Wellington in 1855, from which time most Austen family associations with the rectory ceased.
The house, I have to say, is beautiful and elegant as those later Regency rectories often are. It possesses 59 acres of gardens, parkland ,paddocks and woodland (I wonder if they are hangars?),and (here’s the rub) a price tag of £4.5 million. I wonder what Jane Austen would have made of that. A somewhat caustic and wondering comment no doubt. I know it means that I wont be moving to Hampshire any time soon, however much I might desire it ;-)
And finally, to round up this Jane Austen special post, a big English Country Garden bouquet of congratulation has to be sent to Vic of Jane Austen’s World blog ;-) She is celebrating nearly hitting her millionth hit. All I can saw is Wow! and congratulations dearest!
A day for being inside
Though warmer than yesterday, today was dull, dank and not at all inviting…
The autumnal colours in the garden were much more somber today…
And just look at all those leaves that need to be raked up…I can see that soon I’m going to have to get my hands dirty…but not quite yet.
So instead of working outside we sought refuge inside while my dear daughter made some Halloween themed chocolate cupcakes.
Decorated in the traditional purple, black and orange…;-)
I adore the tiny pumpkin sprinkles…
and the teeny-tiny sugar ghosts.
Of course when I was a child in the early 60s, Halloween was a very different kettle of fish to the amazing retail extravaganza today’s children are offered. We celebrated it with homemade toffee apples, parkin, cinder toffee, jack o’ lanterns carved from swedes( the vegetables not the inhabitants of Sweden!)apple bobbing in a half barrel and ghost tales told round a flickering fire in the sitting room…all pretty tame stuff compared to the range of goodies available for today’s children. And no “Trick or Treating”, which is a concept I don’t think we’ve fully understood this side of the Atlantic.
But if any Tick or Treaters come calling( unlikely, as we live on the outskirts of the village) then they won’t get these cakes… for they will be lucky to survive till tomorrow let alone the weekend!
Back on Wobbly Legs
It’s all very autumnal out there and I’ve had my first walk around my beloved garden for nearly 3 weeks today. Thank you all for your lovely get well wishes and I do apologise for my absence but this flu took my legs quite from underneath me, and I was still quite wobbly today as I ventured around.
Enough to all that. Too boring for words… lets move on to talk , not of cabbages and kings but of far more interesting things. Would you care to join me for an autumnal stroll ?…Come on, let’s do it while the sun is still shining ;-)
The main garden is looking very colourful despite the lack of flowers.The white lilac has the most exquisite lemon yellow foliage at the moment
Which will not last but is lovely for a fleeting moment.
The Parroitia persica, above, is throwing up some fabulously vibrant colours due to the recent spate of cold nights…
I debated for ages on the pros and cons of planting this, fearing it would be a slow grower, and nearly 15 years on,
it is not exactly a tree, more of a large shrub but the autumn colour more than compensates for its lack of stature ;-) Let’s move on a little and come back to this part of the garden later…..
The nut trees in The Wild Bit are dispensing their buttery
and coppery leaves liberally all over the place
Even in the Cutting Roses Garden….
Though the cutting roses are past, there are a few roses still trying to defy the onset of Autumn and Winter.
Rose de Rescht and
Parson’s Pink China are still able to throw up the odd bloom…among the hips…bless them…
The rest of the Old Rose Garden looks very autumnal.
The crab apples have all been harvested by the squirrels from The Crab Apple Tree Garden,and the hornbeam hedges in the Evergreen Oak Lollipop Tree Avenue are having a brief flirtation with colour till they settle down to clinging onto their dingy brown leaves for the rest of the winter
But the autumnal colour in the main garden(which can be seen from the house) provides some lovely vistas.
I love the filigree like leaves of Spiraea prunifolia Bridal Wreath.
Some people think its autumn colour is insignificant, but I love its delicacy. And the Dogwoods are amazing with their combinations of pink, yellow, green and white…
And my unknown but loved maple is stunning(In My Humble Opinion)
And some things are still in flower- the fuchsia mallengallica is still pink and perky behind the Summer House..but other plants are giving me hope for the winter to come.
The Mahonia is throwing up its fronds of buds
and the species hellebores,
Coriscus and Foetida are getting ready to burst open with their curious green flowers
I love winter flowers
….a very different proposition from the lushness of summer,but I’d miss them if they were into here to keep me company though the dark days and nights. I’m going to enjoy sharing them with you over the next few months.(Cant you tell I’ve missed your company recently?)
And now to my other companion of light and shade, Jane Austen (who has been neglected here of late but who kept me company via audio books for the past couple of weeks…no wonder I’m nearly word-perfect these days…). The Jane Austen’s House Museum at Chawton (blessed spot!) has launched a blog, written by its current Writer in Residence, Rebecca Smith. I was told of its existence a couple of weeks ago and I an enjoying her take on life in the museum. I think you might like to visit it too, so I’m adding a link, here (and also adding it to my blog roll /links to the side of the page). Why not pop over and give Rebecca a warm welcome to the Blogsphere ;-)
